My Fuzzy Friend: Yoda loves to be rubbed and will gently paw you if you try to stop

Gilbert White, 54, of Wescosville, with his 8 year old Akita/Staffordshire… (Handout, CONTRIBUTED PHOTO )

August 21, 2013

•Name: Gilbert White

•Age: 54

•Hometown: Wescosville

•Type of pet: Dog

•Name: Yoda

•Age: 8 years

•Breed: Akita/Staffordshire terrier mix

•Male or female: Male

•Why he's your friend: Loyal companion.

•In four words: Energetic, affectionate, crazy, fun

•Best trait: So affectionate — loves to be with you.

•Personality: Alpha male with a mind of his own.

•A funny story: The family favorite is finding out his ability to remove caps from plastic bottles, often without spilling the contents. He holds the bottle between his paws and chews the caps off. My favorite funny story is when he tried to eat our Halloween pumpkins.

•Loves: If it's not constant attention or eating the cat's food, it would be tug-of-war with one of his toys.

•Tricks: Sit, down, shake, figure 8 through your legs, plays dead and when you say "Up!" he spins in a circle (kind of got that one wrong, but it stuck).

•Nicknames: Dingo, Yoda Bear

•Shows affection by: Jumping on you when you sit down — all 60 pounds of him.

•Can be found: Loves to be outside in the yard.

•Likes to be rubbed: On his belly, and will paw you if you stop so you continue to pet him.

•Favorite toy: Any fetch toy — but his favorite is probably the big round rubber balls.

•Favorite treat: Any food — we have to hide all our food and lock the garbage cans.

•Afraid of: Does not like to go out in the rain or ride in the car.

•Worst habit: Jumping over our fence and jumping on people.

•Health scares: Has eaten chocolate and corn cobs and survived; last year a couple heat-related scares during the summer.

•Favorite sleeping spot: Wherever his mood feels like that night.

•Strange, but true: He doesn't like rain and will even move away from his water dish when you pour water in it, but get him near a creek and he will jump right in!

•Comments: We got Yoda from Animals in Distress seven years ago. At first, the kids did not want to see him because his picture was so scary looking. Then he came out and jumped on the benches we were all sitting on, went around to everyone, then went back to our son, jumped on the bench and put his head on our son's shoulder and just sat there, kind of like he was saying, "Just take me home." That's all it took. We knew he was the dog for us!